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Cheers to Mohs, Pechmann; jeers to children's ID thieves

Cheers to Detroit Lakes native Christopher Mohs, who was named the Small Business Administration's Journalist of the Year.

The award was presented last week at the Fargo-Moorhead Chamber of Commerce annual awards luncheon at the Fargo Holiday Inn.

Mohs is president and CEO of FrostFire Creative Inc., which publishes Open magazine.

Also honored was William C. Marcil, chairman and CEO of Forum Communications Co. -- which owns Detroit Lakes Newspapers -- and publisher of The Forum, who received the first Legacy Leader Award from the chamber.

The award recognizes Marcil's contribution to the chamber, community and region.

Jeers to child identity thieves. How low can you go? The number of cases of identity theft committed against children is on the rise, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

And parents may be completely unaware until the child is one day denied a driver's license or a college tuition loan because of the bad record that an identity thief has built in the child's name.

According to the Minnesota Society of CPAs, adults have been the victims of identity theft for years, but scammers have found that a child's personal information is just as useful in committing fraud.

That's why it's important to take the same precautions to protect your child's personal information that you take for your own data. For example, don't reveal your child's Social Security number or other personal data without good reason.

Young children have been the victims of identity theft, but college students are especially vulnerable because they live in close quarters with other students and may not be especially alert to protecting their privacy. They should take care to secure their credit cards or other information and to keep their wallet and important documents in a safe place.

Cheers to former Detroit Lakes swimmer Luke Pechmann. Now at Moorhead High School, he qualified for the Olympic Trials on Saturday.

Pechmann, who committed to swim in college at the University of Arizona, did a crash course on lengthening his stroke for the move to the big pool.

According to a story in The Forum, it paid off on Saturday.

"It's really exciting because it was something that was very distant for me as far as goals," Pechmann said. "Everything came together, and it's all happened pretty fast."